Perhaps your preschool, church or nonprofit has some room to improve communication efforts in 2012 and you’re wondering if MemberHub can help. Well, now is the time to get started with our big end of year coupon. Read more…

“Oops! I forgot to give you that…” The infamous words from your child’s mouth that describe the devilish disappearing act in which the school book bag performs weekly. A distant cousin to the sock-eating dryer, the book bag is a deep and dark hole where endless papers, newsletters and forms fill its void. But is the book bag really to blame? Is it the child, or is it the school? Read more…

Back in 2007 Mashable put together a post where they listed 60+ collaborative tools for groups. That’s a lot of different tools to help your “group” get organized and collaborate. Notice how I said “group” and not “groups”. That post was almost three years ago and today there are plenty of online solutions where “a group” can go online to have discussions, share files and photos, and sync up on events. But for organizations with lots of groups, all these options don’t necessarily mean that you have a better chance of your teams getting organized. What it might mean, instead, is just the opposite of what you need. Read more…

In Part 1 of our 5 Keys to Effective Group Communication Online we considered that group members need to acknowledge when they understand others, get to the point fast, give examples, re-state your points and know when to take things offline. Here are five more ideas to help group communication flourish online. Read more…

There are plenty of choices available today for groups to communicate online. Everything from simple discussion boards and forums to complex real-time collaboration tools. Regardless of the platform it is imperative that people understand how to work in an online group if effective communication is going to take place. Here are some keys to make sure that your groups communicate effectively with online tools.

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In the last year, many people have claimed that email is passe. Often, the main argument is that the use of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are growing so fast that eventually everyone will just use those tools and their mobile phones to communicate. Others have argued that email is just an inferior communication protocol. While it’s curious and interesting to entertain such a massive shift in the way the world communicates, I think it’s an outrageous claim. Here are 5 signs email is here to stay for while.

1. Email is Too Ingrained In Our Every Day Life

Email is dead….really?…really? The entire world communicates through email. There is so much business infrastructure around email and years and years of data that it just seems ludicrous to suggest that email is even dying. Did the T.V. kill radio? Has the mobile phone killed the land line? Just because there are new ways to communicate doesn’t mean that the tried and true email is going bye-bye. Email may die one day, but the biggest factor that would contribute to its demise would be time…and a lot of it.

2. Google Failed to Replace It

Last week, Google announced that they “don’t plan to continue Wave as a standalone product”. If you know anything about Google Wave you’ll know that Google had grand plans to create a “better email client”. But that’s just it, it wasn’t email. It was totally different. Kudos to Google for trying to change the world, but if Wave had sent emails (like most other technologies) it would have had a better adoption rate. As it was, it was just another “inbox-thing” people had to check. That brings me to my next point quite nicely.

3. All Applications Use Email

As of this post Facebook is reporting that people spend over 700 billion minutes on Facebook a month. That’s a lot. But what happens when you o send someone a private message? It sends them an email. In fact go take another look at your Facebook’s notifications preferences. Almost every single thing the application does can and will by default send you AN EMAIL. Like around 100 different email notifications. This type of notifications preferences isn’t unique to the 2nd most active website in the world; they all depend on email.

4. It’s a Nice Alternate to the CONSTANT Steam

People complain about email all the time. They complain about having to empty their inbox and going through 100s of emails. I’m guilty of this too. But the reality is that email is still a great protocol for messages that need to be delivered, but not consumed immediately. Emails are not as disruptive as text messages, but that’s only because text messaging is a relatively new medium to receive messages on. It used to be that when we got a new email we said “Woohoo” I got electronic mail message! Neat. My point here is that just like wedding invitations will always be delivered via snail mail, email provides a great alternative to drinking from the firehose of communication and data that is social media.

5.  Email is a Protocol, Not an Entity

Recently I’ve heard my wife increasingly say to others, “I’ll facebook you.” What does that mean? It means that Facebook is the protocol. It is the medium by which the communication takes place. As inevitable as it may seem, Facebook could be gone tomorrow. The use of Email is not dependent upon the success of a company. Email remains.

What are some other signs email is NOT dead?

When you adopt a tool like MemberHub as your organization’s primary communication tool you’re essentially telling your members that “this is how we communicate”.  Opening up two-way communication channels and putting your members in touch with each other will result in more informed, more engaged members. This means you get less phone calls and potentially save money on extra staff needed to ensure proper communication is taking place. But “will my members use it”, you ask.

Your members hang out on Facebook all day. You’re likely NOT going to get them to hang out in some other social networking application or communication tool. But that doesn’t mean that you should be using Facebook as your communication tool. And it also doesn’t mean that you need a really cool social tool to enhance communication.

A successful implementation of MemberHub means your members are connected, know how to reach other members, and can take care of the business of being a member (like signing up for an event). There’s no concept of “friends”. It’s not about logging on creating unbelievable online community. Online community doesn’t just happen. Even if you have the best tool in the world, online community only happens will it’s fostered and cultivated by people.

It’s about taking care of the business of being a member so that you can leave time for REAL community when members do gather together; rather than worrying about logistics and planning.

So when you’re considering your communication software needs don’t worry so much about getting members to hang out in the tool all day. Just make sure that you’re using it. Make sure that members know how to reach their group. Make sure that they know where to get the latest information. Make sure that communication can take place. Do these things and you will enhance communication in your organization.

If there is one thing that I’m surprised about as we continue to serve churches, it’s the number of folks that are unhappy with their current technology. Countless times I’ve spoken with customers and church leaders who have a laundry list of complaints with their current “IT” situation.

Many times it’s just about one particular piece of outdated membership management software. Other times it’s simply the challenge that comes with having too many tools adopted. On top of all this is the pressure to get involved in social media and enhance communication among their members.

So what is the silver bullet? What would the perfect church technology tool look like? Is it even possible?

Here are just 5 things that I think churches are looking for in technology:

1. SIMPLE. Simple membership management for example. Less features.
2. Private communication tools; NOT private social networking tools.
3. Technology that enhances real relationships somehow.
4. Tools that empower ministry and group leaders to get organized.
5. Reporting on member activity.

Do you agree? Please add more in the comments!

Last week I put up a post on why nonprofit strategies often fail. The message wasn’t ground-breaking or all that entirely original. It was designed to get you asking yourself a lot of questions. My passion for great communication was refueled this morning when John Saddington challenged technology people to put communication first, technology second.

We’ve had a quite a few posts here about “communication”, but they don’t get as much attention as other posts. Why is that?

Why is it that year after year, nonprofit members list “communication” as the number one area that organizations need improvement. Why is it that something so obvious constantly goes overlooked?  Why do your members constantly tell you that “they didn’t know that” or “that wasn’t in the newsletter” or “nobody told me that”?

My challenge here is this: You’ve got talk to your members/employees/constituents. Get a discussion going. Get their feedback. Make them understand what you’re seeing. Work together. Collaborate. THAT’S what social media is all about. It opens up the channel for people to speak about something so that other people can understand it. It’s less about what tools you use and more about making sure that communication is taking plan.

Even with the myriad of social networking tools available, members still feel in the dark? Why?

Last week we received an inquiry from an organization that “…is looking for a way to communicate with its workers throughout the world…”. Throughout the world. That’s awesome. Sure, your church and nonprofit has groups that need to get organized and share documents, calendars and messages, but you’re at least in the same town (usually). These folks are spread throughout the world.

They’re in different countries, with different resources, different timezones and different cultures. Stop and think about the possibility that these folks can easily access a shared calendar and receive automatic event reminders in their respective time zone. No matter where you are, if you have an internet connection, you can collaborate with your team. That sounds so obvious, almost naive. “Duh”, you say, “Welcome to the 21st century”. I know, but only when situations like this come along do I ponder how powerful the internet is and how it enables such awesome feats.

In particular, this organization is trying to spread the Gospel to regions of the world where “sharing one’s faith is illegal.” Their ministry and mission could endanger their ability to live the places they’ve been led. They need to be diligent and organized when it comes to communication and collaboration.

Here are just 5 ways international ministries can benefit from online collaborative tools:

1. Keep everyone informed and ensure this mission’s goals and vision are being shared.
2. Members feel more connected and have a greater sense of togetherness even when spread throughout the world!
3. Encourage each other in their efforts.
4. Allow new members to easily be brought up to speed by joining the online group and reading old messages, downloading forms and viewing member profiles
5. Share files, photos, calendars and member information with each other to keep everyone in sync

What are some others?